Travel influencer goes viral after doing her hair on a 6-hour flight: ‘Black women are magical’
Cassy Isabella Woodley boarded her flight in London with stretched natural hair. Touching down in Ghana six hours later, she was rocking faux locs.
The travel influencer, who goes by Bellaworldwide, captured her hair transformation —which was achieved using crochet locs and a hook to achieve it — on video and shared it to social media.
“When your superpowers kick in late but right on time,” she wrote in the caption. “I have a habit of running behind on my pre-trip preparations so there’s always something I’m rushing to do last minute. This time it was my hair.”
Woodley, who is the co-founder of The Roaming Republic, a travel brand that creates group excursions, tells Yahoo Life that this was not the first time that she has had to do her hair on a flight.
“I initially planned to do my hair at home before leaving,” she explains. “I had a lot going on before the trip and as the days approached and time ran out, I decided the day before leaving I’d just do it on the plane. It’s a mess-free style and I’d done it on a flight before so I knew I could finish it without disturbing anyone or leaving hair anywhere.”
She adds that it took her the whole six hours for her to finish the style and did not need much space to achieve it since she was well practiced — but she did catch a few looks from a few passengers.
“So because I was at the window seat, most people didn’t really notice. The girl in front of me kept looking back and smiling and checking on my progress and there were two women across the aisle who also kept looking to see how my hair was going. Besides that, the crew members were unbothered and no one really noticed. I’m sure the guy behind me was in shock,” she recalls.
Woodley may not have gotten a lot of attention on her flight, but she has online.
“This is a great moment in black history,” one person praised.
“Maam lmao how the hell! Black women get it done lmao no matter what,” another person said.
“This is powerful,” someone wrote.
“Omg! I love everything about this, what a smart way to pass the time!” a user declared.
Woodley admits that she is floored by the reactions she’s gotten considering this was just an ordinary thing to her.
“My mother had an in-home hair salon so I’ve been doing hair since I was seven and this is completely normal for me to be able to do my hair on the fly,” she admits. “To see that so many people were shocked by this is crazy to me. Airplanes are also very, very comfortable for me because I worked as a flight attendant for five years and spent more time on planes than at home. So I honestly didn’t think much of it.”
This attention was especially a treat since the global pandemic has meant that Woodley hasn’t gotten to travel as much.
“I spent the beginning of lockdown in London with my boyfriend and from there we traveled to Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Greece and Turkey. In comparison to my 2019, this is not a lot. From August until December, I stayed put and that’s the longest I’ve gone without traveling. As long as the county’s rules are understood and followed and we’re testing/isolating between travels it can still be done safely. I quarantine before, between and after every trip and this most recent trip I had to take a COVID test on arrival,” she says.
And with the challenges this past year has presented, Woodley hopes that her video brings hope and sends the message that “Black women are magical and get it done by any means necessary.” She adds, “We are resourceful and make things happen however and wherever we need to.”
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